Celebrating Bishop David Olaniyi OYEDEPO @ 63: 10 Thought-provoking Things About Papa!

September 27, 2017 editor

Bishop David OyedepoLove For The Gospel: Between age 10 and 12, (1964 – 1966), he was already ‘practicing’ preaching using his grandmother’s living room as the church and her soup cupboard as podium – and he had about 5 children as ‘congregation.’ That was even before he discovered the ‘Jackpot’ of Matthew 6:33, a story for another day.The Rod of Moses: At that same age, and based on biblical stories he had heard, he asked a carpenter to make a Moses-kind-of-rod for him – to ‘divide’ the Red Sea and take people to the Promised Land (And later in his life, God would hand him The Mandate, to liberate the world from all oppression of the devil…)Change of Status: At 15, he got saved – and till today, he remembers when (February 19, 1969), where, and through whom (Betty Lasher).Tuberculosis Destroyed: In September that same year, having been a victim of tuberculosis, he woke up one night and discovered that his dormitory mates had moved away from his space because he coughed very badly. And he took a step of faith: went out and stood on a little rock behind the hostel; called on Jesus The Christ, saying, ‘Jesus, if it is true that you did all those miracles that I read about in the New Testament, do it again…” That was the end of TB…at age 15! Hear his testimony: “He set me free from tuberculosis in 1969 and I’m free forever, for whatever the Lord does shall be forever”.The dignity of Labour: At 16, he earned his first money, having learned the virtues of the dignity of labour from his maternal grandmother, the late Mrs. Rachael Adeyiola Odetundun. Though he was comfortable, he needed to learn how to earn – at 16! Well, he didn’t forget to ‘spoil’ himself a little with his hard-earned money: he bought himself a pair of in-vogue shoes called ‘Apollo’.Conference at 16: He attended his first Christian conference in March 1970 at age 16 – and he still remembers the theme: “God is not slow.”The Dead Came back to Life:In 1970, his younger brother had died of measles but he won’t take that. He made his mother put the ‘dead’ child on her back and led her to an uncompleted building where he laid the child down, prayed, called on Jesus, and the child jerked back to life.Faithful in Little: When in 1973 he was asked to relieve a teacher who was due for maternity leave, he jumped at it. It was at a village in Kwara State. The first thing he noticed when he got there was no single church, not even the ubiquitous Catholic Church! He went into action: First, he prayed, “Lord, let me never leave this village the same way I met it; Lord, put your name in this village.”And 40 days later, a church building was already in place. On his last day there, he got a prophetic gift (a lantern) from the elders of the village with these words:“Silver or gold we have not, but we give you this lamp. Let the light that you brought to our village shine around the world.” That light is still shinning, even brighter today!Prayer, Like Food: From 1971, he was already a student leader organizing special prayer meetings in his school.“Prayer was indeed like food to me,” he wrote in THE MANDATE, one of his books.The ‘Jackpot of Life’: In 1976, at age 22, he had an encounter with the Holy Spirit in Matthew 6:33 as revealed to him: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God… and all these things that others are dying to get shall be added unto you.” That revelation is still liberating many today – seeking ONE THING and gaining command over ALL OTHER THINGS!

God bless my years on earth as well